132
Portland
Wednesday afternoon
half of the semester, tablets and inkSurvey were used to collect formative
assessment data. We will report on impressions of both the faculty and
students regarding the relative utility and effectiveness of each tool in pro-
moting higher-order thinking and improved class performance.
GG07:
3:40-3:50 p.m. Wireless Open Source Physics
Laboratory Data Acquisition System
Contributed – Zengqiang Liu, Saint Cloud State University, 720 4th Ave. S
WSB 311, Saint Cloud, MN 56301;
A data acquisition system (DAQ) is critical to laboratory physics teaching
but is often viewed as a black box and is expensive, which limits time and
location for experiential learning to one to three hours of weekly scheduled
session in lab rooms. With the AAPT award-wining open source physics
laboratory (OSPL) DAQ, the cost is drastically reduced. OSPL promotes
experiential learning beyond lab sessions and lab rooms, and provides
students opportunities to learn “what’s inside the box”. The cost and labor
of the newly designed OSPL 2.0 DAQ are $60 and one hour. OSPL 2.0 also
features Bluetooth wireless data transfer and a polished new look. OSPL
2.0 includes a variety of accurate low-cost home-made sensors and an
expanded list of compatible sensors from existing vendors. This provides
huge opportunity for introductory physics laboratory curriculum develop-
ment, cost effective lab equipment improvement and lab components in
online education.
GG08:
3:50-4 p.m. Social Media in the Public H.S. Physics
Classroom
Contributed – Fran Poodry, West Chester East HS, 450 Ellis Lane, West
Chester, PA 19380;
Issues abound when high school teachers communicate with high school
students over social media. How can social media be used effectively at
the high school level without violating school/district policies? What can
be accomplished through social media that would not happen within
the classroom? Why should a teacher use social media at all with one’s
students, given the issues involved? I use Facebook and Twitter with high
school students in a public school setting and will share guidelines and tips.
You can follow me on Twitter by searching for the username MsPoodry.
GG09:
4-4:10 p.m. Using Piazza in an Introductory
Physics Class
Contributed – Andrew Duffy, Boston University, Physics Department, Boston,
MA 02215;
Meredith Knight, Boston University
At Boston University, we have been using Piazza, a free social-media
tool, in our large introductory physics classes. The idea is that, instead of
sending course-related questions in individual e-mails to the instructors,
the students post the questions on Piazza, where they can be answered by
other students or by members of the course staff. All students have access
to the information, and are able to take part in follow-up discussions. The
result, over a semester, is a large collection of threaded (and searchable)
discussions. The talk will give a brief introduction to Piazza, and discuss
the benefits of using Piazza in a large-enrollment class.
GG10:
4:10-4:20 p.m. SkyDrive and Office Web Apps for
Student Research Project Management
Contributed – Changgong Zhou, 21000 West Ten Mile Road, Southfiemd, MI
48075;
Undergraduate research projects provide students with valuable re-
search experiences. However, for the young researchers, especially those
first-timers, the lack of project management skills can make it difficult to
remain motivated and organized. Meanwhile, simultaneously supervising
several projects that are usually different in many aspects, such as project
scopes, research methods, student readiness and etc., can pose a challenge
to a professor who often has other academic and administrative duties. In
this presentation, a project management practice centered on Microsoft
SkyDrive and Office Web Apps is described. This practice, by integrating
centralized management with shared responsibilities, can make project su-
pervising less demanding for professors, and has the potential to foster
project management skills for student researchers.
GG11:
4:20-4:30 p.m. Instructors Take Note: Course
Structure Impacts Student Use of Etexts
Contributed – Daniel T. Seaton, MIT, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge,
MA 02139;
Yoav Bergner, Saif Rayyan, David E. Pritchard, MIT
Gerd Kortemeyer Michigan State University
The overall amount, and the manner, in which students use e-texts
depends strongly on course structure, but weakly on class size or on
whether the online environment is blended, distance learning, or open.
Analyzing tracking logs from the LON-CAPA and edX platforms,
we determine the use of etexts in more than 16 introductory physics
courses at Michigan State University and MIT, plus four non-physics
courses from MITx. A two -parameter model of usage distributions
reveals that traditional course structure (few exams, other learning re-
sources besides the e-text) generally correlates with the average student
viewing less that 20% of the text, whereas reformed structure (frequent
exams, embedded assessment in the assigned e-text) correlates with
students viewing over 70%. Our data-mining techniques also analyze
the temporal pattern of e-text use, distinguishing weekly reading from
review immediately before (or during open book) exams.
Session GH: Other
Location: Galleria I
Sponsor: AAPT
Date: Wednesday, July 17
Time: 2:40–3:30 p.m.
Presider: TBD
GH01:
2:40-2:50 p.m. Introducing Research Experiences in
a Community College
Contributed – Chitra G. Solomonson, Green River Community College,
Auburn, WA 98092;
Andrew H. Rice, Christine K. Luscombe, Keith A. Clay, Green River Com-
munity College
As more students seek to gain admission to universities, fewer seats are
becoming available to them due to increasing budget cuts. Thus admis-
sion is becoming increasingly competitive. At the same time, more and
more students are relying on community colleges to serve as a stepping
stone to college. Experience in research is becoming an important
component of STEM undergraduate programs in four-year schools.
Research experiences have been shown to deepen students’ resolve
in persisting in STEM fields especially for underrepresented popula-
tions.
1
In this project (funded by NSF DUE-1141339), faculty members
at Green River Community College are collaborating with faculty
members at the University of Washington to develop and implement
lab modules in the cutting-edge fields of Organic Photovoltaics (OPVs)
and Organic Light Emitting Devices (OLEDs). Results of a pilot study
involving a small group of Green River in the calculus-based physics
course will be discussed.
1. S.H. Russell, M.P. Hancock, and J. McCullough, “Benefits of undergraduate
research experiences,”
Sci.
316
(5,824): 548-549 (2007).
GH02:
2:50-3 p.m. Acronym Usage 4 Physics Equations
Contributed – Shannon A. Schunicht, M&W inc @Texas A&M University,
6773 Bendwood, College Station, TX 77845.3005;
Physics instruction using acronyms is always remembered. Examples
include FOIL (First, Outside, Inside & Last). Another: My (Multiplica-
tion)- Dear (division)- Aunt (Addition) & Sally (subtraction). Others,
forgotten soon thereafter, if not continually used. This author was in a
